AT SCHOOL . 2016
During the second half of 2016, we implemented Learning to Study at Dilermando Dias dos Santos municipal school, located in São Paulo.
Using the preliminary version of the program’s methodology, we worked with three teachers to carry out seven didactic sequences with two 4th grade classes, and six didactic sequences with one 5th grade class. The materials were used in a total of 52 sessions with 75 students from ages 9 to 12.
Learning to Study guides 4th and 5th-grade teachers in analyzing the content and structure of History and Science texts, as well as implementing reading activities that help children learn disciplinary content and become more familiar with the language used to represent it.
Laboratório de Educação instructors conducted weekly meetings to study the formative materials, analyze the History texts explored in each sequence, create detailed lesson plans and prepare interactive materials. Additionally, instructors visited each classroom twice a week to document in-class implementation of activities through video and audio recordings.
The intervention led teachers to incorporate collective analysis of texts into their practice and to consider the applicability of the procedures to other subject areas. Over time, classroom discussions came to include more references to content, and activities enabled students to manipulate History vocabulary in reconstructing historical facts and concepts presented in the texts.
The results of the pilot study also highlighted the need to detail exemplary interventions in the formative materials and illuminated how technology might facilitate implementation of the methodology on a wider scale.